Reviews

Screwed Up English

Rachel Schaffer

Most of us have seen them while traveling abroad or sightseeing in ethnic neighborhoods: signs purportedly in English but leaving fluent speakers scratching their heads in bewilderment or amusement. How did the writer pick that word? What word is he or she really looking for? Just what exactly does that sign mean, anyway? Charlie Croker has also encountered many such examples of misused and abused English from around the world and has compiled the most outrageous – and hilarious – of them in a small, cleverly illustrated volume called Screwed Up English. The book organizes its "priceless nuggets ...

To read this entire article you must be a MultiLingual subscriber. For immediate access to the current issue, subscribe to the digital version. Already a subscriber?